Taping the Police

[snowman6251]

I saw this video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpCSfPUyfeU] about the storm of shit that hit this guy after he taped a police officer beating another student at his school. Its not the first story I've heard like this either. The case where the cop shot an unarmed man and the case where a cop pulled a gun on a guy who was speeding come to mind, both I believe were mentioned in the video as well.

So what do you guys think about the cops being on camera. I think it should absolutely be our right to record the actions of on duty police officers, inadvertently or intentionally, and be safe from punishment. If a cop is acting as he should, he should have nothing to hide, and therefore there should be no issues with being recorded. The only reason for cops to be so against being recorded is because they can be caught acting inappropriately or abusing power. Police can commit crimes too and they should not be able to punish people who bring evidence against them.

If I witness a man shoot another man in cold blood and caught it all on camera I'd be thanked for providing valuable evidence. If the man doing the shooting was a cop however it seems I'd wind up in jail. That's not right.

Anyway what are your thoughts on this?

 

[Tdc2182]

It is a tricky subject not caused by police officers at all, its caused by high ups in the government.

Its more about people who hold grudges against cops. I'll get into it more if people ask me, but right now I am pretty lost in the clouds on some Pain killers so I can't concentrate properly.

 

[Dags90]

That's ridiculous, and the prosecutors filing these as felony charges should be looked at for malicious prosecution or other ethics violations. There's no expectation of privacy in public, as rightly said by the Maryland judge in the helmet camera case.[footnote]http://www.apbweb.com/featured-articles/1759-judge-to-cops-they-can-film-you-working.html[/footnote]

 

[lasting_Child]

Wow... Sounds like a completely terrible law, it only sort of makes sense, and the sense it does make doesn't excuse the nonsense it presents. We don't have that law here, maybe it's just in America? Even then maybe just localised to a few states? I can't really see anyone in their right mind going about a privacy issue... Actually, scratch that, when it comes to privacy, all governments are completely retarded.

I think the issue TDC is trying to bring up with the grudges is that people will intentionally film police in order to catch them doing something illegal but ommit certain parts such as warnings, details about the offender and the like and just film the bad stuff putting it completely out of context.

Another issue is that filming ANYONE without permission is illegal so far as my knowledge goes (Feel free to catch me on it though), so obviously police officers are included in that "ANYONE"... Sorry about that... But yeah, if anyone is doing anything illegal, filming them shouldn't be a crime.

 

[benderinTime]

Sometimes, I think America is super awesome, and sometimes, I think it is one of the most stupid places in existence.
This time, it is the latter.

 

[x0ny]

You've no chance when you're up against the old bill, as a family recently discovered. A relatively old father (45-50years) was walking home from work during a G20 protest. One of the riot police thought he was one of the protestors, despite the fact the guy was casually walking along with his hands in his pockets.

On seeing this man, the officer whipped out his baton and beat the guy on the head. Subsequently, the man died from internal bleeding due to blunt force trauma, the officer was, of course, pardoned, despite this entire sequence being filmed on camera. Ian Tomlinson was the victim's name.

 

[Drummie666]

Oh Jesus I have a horrible mind. I say Tap-ing, not taping... As in sex.

Seriously though, this is complete crap. Though it has peaked my interest in RT. Is it a good news network?

 

[snowman6251]

Oh Jesus I have a horrible mind. I say Tap-ing, not taping... As in sex.

Seriously though, this is complete crap. Though it has peaked my interest in RT. Is it a good news network?

I honestly couldn't tell you. I'd never heard of it before until I saw this video.

You've no chance when you're up against the old bill, as a family recently discovered. A relatively old father (45-50years) was walking home from work during a G20 protest. One of the riot police thought he was one of the protestors, despite the fact the guy was casually walking along with his hands in his pockets.

On seeing this man, the officer whipped out his baton and beat the guy on the head. Subsequently, the man died from internal bleeding due to blunt force trauma, the officer was, of course, pardoned, despite this entire sequence being filmed on camera. Ian Tomlinson was the victim's name.

Seems this isn't just restricted to the USA then.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

I am pretty lost in the clouds on some Pain killers so I can't concentrate properly.

This is why babies shouldn't smoke. It only leads to harder stuff.

OT: Really touchy subject. Hey, they don't allow cameras in delivery rooms anymore, so people can't use things out of context to sue doctors, so I guess it's similar.

However, I still feel conflicted on the whole "unquestionable authority" thing.

 

[snowman6251]

I am pretty lost in the clouds on some Pain killers so I can't concentrate properly.

This is why babies shouldn't smoke. It only leads to harder stuff.

OT: Really touchy subject. Hey, they don't allow cameras in delivery rooms anymore, so people can't use things out of context to sue doctors, so I guess it's similar.

However, I still feel conflicted on the whole "unquestionable authority" thing.

What's there to be conflicted about? No one should be above the law. If the police take things too far they should be held accountable for their actions. Even the president should be held accountable if he commits a crime. Giving the police unquestionable authority only serves to hurt us civilians as it allows injustices to be committed and go unpunished. Also any law restricting our freedom or serving to screw us over like these wiretapping laws the police are using to fuck over these guys with cameras need to be repealed or modified to something more appropriate for the technology available.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

snip

I'm aware of all that, but again, the doctor issue.

It is now highly frowned upon to tape the birth of a child. This is due to the fact that whenever anything went wrong with the kid later in life, the parents would take some out of context action performed by the doctor and sue them for malpractice. As a result of this, doctors stopped wanting to get into OB-GYN practices to avoid lawsuits, and medical bills increased. I'm sorried that something similar could happen in law enforcement.

I'm not saying one way or the other, or that there's nothing wrong with wire tapping (I'm against it completely), but we need to think about this before jumping to hasty conclusions.

Also, I never said anything about unconditional authority (other than that I was against it), there are already a bunch of restrictions on police officers.

 

[Dags90]

I'm aware of all that, but again, the doctor issue.

It is now highly frowned upon to tape the birth of a child. This is due to the fact that whenever anything went wrong with the kid later in life, the parents would take some out of context action performed by the doctor and sue them for malpractice. As a result of this, doctors stopped wanting to get into OB-GYN practices to avoid lawsuits, and medical bills increased. I'm sorried that something similar could happen in law enforcement.

I'm not saying one way or the other, or that there's nothing wrong with wire tapping (I'm against it completely), but we need to think about this before jumping to hasty conclusions.

Also, I never said anything about unconditional authority (other than that I was against it), there are already a bunch of restrictions on police officers.

A hospital is a private place though, it's not really comparable from a legal standpoint. The fact of the matter is that no one has a legal expectation of privacy in public, and cops aren't an exception to this.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

snip

All I'm saying is that we can't jump into a decision blindly.

 

[Dags90]

snip

All I'm saying is that we can't jump into a decision blindly.

We don't make the decision at all, judges do. And they say, "Yes, cops, too."

 

[Kakashi on crack]

I've spoken with cops on multiple occasions, and have a few friends who are cops. (even though I'm only 16)

Really, its to protect their identity against stalkers and such. Most cops don't pull that crap though, it's only a select few, and higher ups such as military and riot control.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

snip

"We" meaning people in general, including elected and appointed officials.

Finally, I think I'm done with this argument. I never said that the police should have a get out of jail free card, I was only trying to voice a possible differing perspective. Generally speaking, I'm your standard "bleeding heart liberal," anyway.

 

[Syntax Man]

Now this may be the post dental surgery mouth thawing and excruciating pain that ensues talking "though I rather doubt it" but the idea that recording police brutality is a felony is completely fucking insane, it's like the country wants the remove all liability from the police.

 

[lacktheknack]

It's no more of a crime than Wikileaks.

 

[snowman6251]

It's no more of a crime than Wikileaks.

The only thing I think wikileaks should be reprimanded for is leaking things actually pertaining to national security. Anything showing the military being assholes and such should be public knowledge because if our government is not appropriately representing the people then we should express that we want change.

 

[Burck]

If a cop is acting as he should, he should have nothing to hide, and therefore there should be no issues with being recorded.

Funny that you bring that up...

That argument has typically been used as a way to justify monitoring of civilians, but I've never heard of it being used to justify monitoring authority figures until now...

Not sure what I think about that. I definitely like the idea of keeping those with power in check, but accepting this specific kind of logic could have ramifications against the public as well.

Perhaps new standards should be established regarding the self-documentation of U.S. police officers and their kind.

If nothing else, I believe that any man or woman elevated over his/her peers by a nation, must be watched critically, and be removed from power if they abuse their power.